Markit, the financial information services company that owns the Markit ABX.HE index, today announced plans to launch an ABX.HE 05-2 index on October 2, 2008. The ABX.HE is a tradable synthetic index of U.S. sub-prime asset-backed securities.
The addition of the new index, following a majority vote of licensed dealers, will provide institutional investors with a greater ability to gain or hedge exposure to an earlier vintage of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).
The Markit ABX.HE 05-2 index will reference 20 qualifying RMBS deals issued in the first half of 2005. The deals will be selected according to the rules governing the index which are publicly available on Markit’s web site at:
www.markit.com/information/products/category/indices/abx/documentation.html
